"The language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here. No, wait. It's a BitCoin key."

Charlie Shrem’s Bitcoin ring. Photo: Charlie Shrem. Two weeks ago, Charlie Shrem got hacked and robbed, Bitcoin-style. Criminals got into a brokerage account used by his transaction services company, Bitinstant, and emptied more than $12,000 worth of the digital currency. Banks can sometimes reel back online transactions and recover the money when it gets stolen by hackers, but Bitcoins don’t work that way. Bitcoins are the digital equivalent of cash, and they can be traded instantly and anonymously. So once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. Shrem’s hackers made off with a big pile of Bitcoins, but there was a much larger pile — about one-third of Shrem’s total Bitcoin savings — that they couldn’t touch. That’s the pile he keeps on his finger. About a month ago, Shrem bought a brand new netbook online (from Bitcoinstore , naturally). Without plugging it into the interne...